Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I never get tired of 'It Was A Good Day' references or jokes or anything like that. It's just, you know, keeping my biggest hit alive. Nothing wrong with that.
Maybe yes, but probably not. At each stage I made what was then the best choice. Having taken that decision, I changed direction and there was no turning back.
Every day, my daddy told me the same thing. 'Once a task is just begun, never leave it till it's done. Be the labour great or small, do it well or not at all.'
I was reading Omar Khayyam, Kahlil Gibran, Rumi, L. Ron Hubbard, all sorts of philosophy. Bebop cats are like that. Curious. I wanted to know about everything.
To me, dance music is a lot of space - to listen to other things than melodies. I think club music and dance music really require a different way of listening.
Beyonce gave us direction, and she had like four or five studios going at one time, but then she only sings what she likes. "Back Up" was one of those records.
You could make some great sounds with technology. That's what recording is all about. What happens in the studio is very magical, and should be, in my opinion.
I am flying back to New York as I write this. I will never forget these wonderful 35 days and I would go back to Copenhagen in a heartbeat to work there again.
When you actually make a new friend, and you make music and laugh really hard together, that can give you a lot of confidence and nourishment and encouragement.
I think, with every kind of creature and every kind of human, there is no better. We're all just mutations, and I think that each mutation should be celebrated.
I never feel like I've done good enough. That's why I'm always so excited about working because I gotta keep pushing myself to do better work, to do great work.
A lot of people have a misconception of what the ghetto is all about. You know, it's only a small percentage of the people that are bad. Everybody else is good.
Our records, if you have a dark sense of humor, were funny, but our records weren't about comedy. They were about protests, fantasy, confrontation and all that.
What makes the Stones' arrogance so divine is that we all believe that long ago and far away they weren't rich and famous but poor and struggling, just like us.
Joni Mitchell seems destined to remain in a state of permanent dissatisfaction - always knowing what she would like to do, always more depressed when it's done.
I build a lot of stuff, but I'm not a 'construction guy.' But I'm one of these guys that sits with his hands on his hips and tells you I'm gonna fix everything.
I'm passionate about everything, like my family and friends. Anybody I am talkin' to is gonna be bona fide real. There is no substitution for happiness. Period.
If I'm gonna put a message out there, I want to make sure I stay consistent. I'm up on my game, because I said it. People take your words and they live by them.
To be honest, I think about the clubs when I write. But I should probably start thinking about stadiums, because the songs sound even better there - and bigger.
It's easy for people to mistake most musicians as living the easy life. It takes a while to get to that point. I'm sure it's like that for acting and television.
I don't take any shorts. I don't say, 'Okay, it's good enough.' I try to get exactly what I'm hearing in my head to the tape, and I won't let it move until then.
There are artists that actually don't like going into the studio. They get mad when people say they've got a session. I'm just the opposite. I actually enjoy it.
There is a 'patrician arrogance' to James Taylor that accounts in part for his popularity while it at the same time explains the critical resistance to his work.
At 15, I started listening to hard rock and heavy metal, but I would say it was more hard rock because I liked Kiss, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, and eventually AC/DC.
I'm not enthused by these rap dudes. All in they videos, posin' half nude, with all of them tattoos, Til I blacken they eyes and have them lookin' like raccoons.
R. Kelly is one of the pioneers that I grew up listening to. If he's classified as an R&B artist, then I want to be like that. I don't want to have limits either.
Beats is inherently different: the company is a consumer electronics company but also a media company; a packaged goods company but also an entertainment company.
All of the artists that I've worked with have an incredible work ethic. And Madonna has the best work ethic of them all. I've learned a lot from being around her.
I got to trumpet, finally. That's why I love to write for brass, and [Count] Basie and [Frank] Sinatra and all that stuff, 'cause that's just like part of my DNA.
Whether I'm working with a Top 40 artist or crafting my own music, it goes back to one thing: telling a powerful story and having that story resonate with people.
I try to stay away from certain stuff - I'm not a perfect human being. I try to represent myself as much as a good person could. I stay around the positive people.
Do not turn into just cookie-cutter producer, cookie-cutter this, but a producer that people say wow, when they do something it's great or just unique or whatever.
The Rolling Stones are violence. Their music penetrates the raw nerve endings of their listeners and finds its way into the groove marked 'release of frustration.'
The power of nature is what all art strives to be. The more we can get in tune with the harmony of the planet, the more our art can benefit from that relationship.
That excitement of how music makes you want to dance - that's what got me back into it, and that's what 'Honey' is about. Me just being able to enjoy myself again.
If I do five, six records that sound great, I want it to come out as fast as it can. I don't care how many copies it sells. It's about musically moving the needle.
Being knee-deep in sadness or suffering and refusing to look down - to me, that represents something more powerful than someone who's never gone through difficulty.
I'm not trying to turn into Eddie Murphy, and just do kids movies the rest of my career. I'm going to still do a wide variety of movies, as well as do hardcore rap.
I don't think of myself as just a pop artist, but someone who knows she has a bigger meaning. I'm not doing this for myself; I'm doing this because it's my destiny.
Anybody that I ever dealt with knows that I'm a very focused individual, and when it comes to my work and what I do, you might have to play the back burner to that.
The Beatles looked like they were in show business, and that was the important thing. And the important thing for the Rolling Stones was to look as if they were not.
There is something complete about Stevie Wonder, and one senses that he is not only exceptionally important today, but will continue to be for as long as he chooses.
I can't function without coffee and I cannot refuse chocolate. Drink I gave up years ago and don't miss it in the slightest. But I think I'd collapse without coffee.
It was about being able to dance like Cassidy did, as though no one was watching, as though the moment was infinite enough without needing to document its existence.
You pay to have a good time, you don't always want to pay to be schooled or sad or reminded how bad you got it. To me a movie theater ain't always the place for that.
One girl who stands out was this Miami stripper. She still lives with her mother and father, and they know she strips. They call her by her stripper name, Freaky Red.
The music industry is such a huge machine. There are still a lot of good people in it, but the character of the industry and the culture of the industry is very fast.
As far as anybody in the rap game ever tryin to assassinate my character, thats impossible. You talkin about a man who has always walked the walk and talked the talk.
There's no difference in dealing with the music business with the majors than any other competition. The music business is way more cutthroat than any other business.
The whole purpose of writing a book is to be understood - if other people write about you, they try to guess why you did things, or they hear things from other people.